After Sex

In Paris, the successful forty and something year old book editor Diane Clovier (Brigitte Roüan) is married with the lawyer Philippe Clovier (Patrick Chesnais) and they have teenage son and daughter. Diane meets the young engineer Emilio (Boris Terral) that is the roommate of the writer François Narou (Nils Tavernier) that is working with her, and they have an intense love affair. Meanwhile, Philippe is defending their neighbor that has killed her unfaithful husband sticking a fork in his neck and one day he overhears a phone conversation of Diane and her lover. When Emilio ends their affair, Diane gets deeply depressed missing her juvenile love, neglecting her husband and children that leave her. Meanwhile, the novel of François is published and he tries to help his self-indulgent editor to recover her emotional balance and self-esteem.

"Post Coïtum Animal Triste" is a dramatic romance about a woman in love and desire for a younger man. This film has a great performance of the director / actress Brigitte Roüan but the running time of 97 minutes is too long and the deserved a shorter edition. The situation of Diane, totally neglecting her son and her daughter, is unusual for a mother and I found her an unlikable character. The open conclusion is not clear and I do not know whether the intention of the author is to tell that Diane superseded her situation with her rebirth. I watched this movie on a VHS released by Cult Filmes distributor. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Post Coïtum Animal Triste" ("Post Coitum Sad Animal")

It is a typical European movie and a typical woman's movie. If you happen to like both, as I do, you will find it quite captivating and well made. There is not much action per se though quite a few nude sex scenes, done quite tastefully and not pruriently. The acting is good, the cinematography is average European, which is also good. There is some suspense. It is definitely not the best movie my wife and I have ever watched but we did not grudge the time and only once or twice felt like fast forwarding but the very next frame changed our minds.

Maybe this would be a better movie if I spoke French. Although, actually I prefer subtitled movies to dubbed ones. The film wasn't awful, it just wasn't good. It bored me. I can point to no part or cast or crew that was any better or any worse than the whole. Don't waste your time. Grade: D-

This is really a nice story, very true as my own experience, I believe anyone who ever been to that state or close to, things might go so tragic like that, The film is a truly reminder for all of us ---don't ever be that way when you fall in love, the ending could be whole lot different and you can get more than what it could offer. Self loving is always the infinity, the forever lesson for all of us to learn and stand on foot with it this life. We fall, then we grow. Brigitte Rouan is really a talent, she deserves more recognition than this film did. Great work as a female director, we need more of them like she is. Working on a project that might call her soul and she did it faithfully.

"After Sex" tells of a comfortably successful middle aged professional women with a family who has an affair with a man 20 years her junior and goes into deep depression when he leaves. A very ordinary film in all respects, "After Sex" does not do justice to the story and mixes humor with drama schizophrenically rather than synergistically. Though the film does have its moments and is not completely devoid of appeal, it's not worth all the subtitle reading.